Blackberries
by Adolis
Summary: Shorts of various characters eating Blackberries. If there's someone you'd like me to write about, feel free to leave it in a review. None of the stories are in any correlation to another, so feel free to skip ahead to a chapter with your favorite characters. So far includes Kingdom Hearts, Final Fantasy VII, and Final Fantasy VIII
1. Sora, Riku, and Kairi

Sora sat on the beach munching some blackberries and dropping those which didn't make it into his mouth down his shirt front. Honestly, that boy could sit and eat buckets full of blackberries if he only had the resources. Yes, there would be retribution a few hours later, but who cares?! Blackberries are…are…BLACKBERRIES! That is the ultimate compliment you can give anything, blackberry or not.

He picked the small, heaven berries out of his lap and popped them into his gullet, taking the time to pop each of the little seeds between his front teeth. It was like a dissection.

Riku walked along a bit later with Kairi in tow, and both laughed when they beheld Sora with a blue-stained mouth.

"Watch out, Kairi, he'll be after your raspberries once he finishes," the older boy scoffed.

Sora spat his mouthful of seeds at Riku, "You know I hate raspberries! Almost as much as you hate your new haircut!"

Riku glowered, remembering all too well a certain incident involving a certain Nobody and certain flaming weapons. As weird as it was, Sora was sad to see Axel disappear after he was defeated. Even though he was an enemy, there had just been something likeable about that red-haired pyromaniac.

"Don't speak of it," Riku enunciated.

"Aww, come on, Riku," Kairi huffed, "Boy's aren't supposed to have longer hair than girls, anyway."

"But Riku's hair's always been long," Sora mused, trying to remember if Riku had ever had short hair before and eating some more blackberries. Nope. Not until recently. And it technically still wasn't short like a normal boy haircut. Sora pulled at his front spike, the one that made it hard to see above his head at certain angles.

"You need a haircut, Sora," Kairi laughed.

"Have you ever tried cutting my hair? Get it wrong and it looks like I made Leon angry," Sora grinned as he took another handful of blackberries from the bag at his side.

Kairi laughed, "I really should get to know that guy if he can scare the likes of you, Mr. Take-down-Ansem-and-Xemnas-and-any-number-of-big-Heartless."

"Hey, I was there, too," Riku huffed, a smile touching his face as he crossed his arms.

Sora tossed more blackberries into his mouth and stood up, bringing his bag of berries with him, "O'Coursh!" he swallowed, "I'd be dead if you weren't there to help with Xemnas and lots of other stuff, though you really pack a punch when you don't want to help me," Sora gave Riku an evil grin. Except it's Sora. So the evil grin came out as a normal grin with raised eyebrows, lowered eyelids, and a strained throat. Kairi poked his Adam's apple and he coughed.

Sora ate some more blackberries.

"You're going to make yourself sick again," Kairi sighed.

"But they're so good!" Sora and Riku said in unison. Sora gave Riku a withering look. Riku shrugged.

"I can't help it you're predictable."

"I'm not predictable," Sora and Kairi said.

"…No blackberries for you," Sora took off in the direction of the boats to get back to town.

Kairi followed, laughing, with Riku hot on her heels.


	2. Cloud and Tifa

"Mommy! Daddy!" Aeris pulled out of Tifa's hand and sprinted towards a bush.

"Aerith! I've told you not to run off!" Cloud chased after his daughter, scooping her onto his shoulder once caught.

"But, Daddy, look! Blackburries!" the ecstatic 4-year-old pointed at the bush in question.

Cloud put Aeris down, "I see, but you don't run off like that. You could get hurt."

"Tharry, Daddy," Aeris looked down, feigning shame.

Tifa walked up and put her hand on her hip, "What was all the fuss about?" she huffed.

"Aerith found a blackberry bush," Cloud explained, standing, "Did you run here?"

"Her name is Aeris, Cloud. Don't confuse her. And yes, I ran a bit. Oh, don't give me that look, Cloud. I'm pregnant, not dying."

Cloud sighed, "Fine. But I'll have you know that some days you act like you're dying."

"Can we pick thome blackburries?"

"It's 'some,' sweetie. With an 's.' And some days I feel like I'm dying, but that's the end of that conversation," Tifa pet Aeris' head.

"Well, can we pick thssome?" the child persisted.

"Sure, if you can find something other than your dress to hold them all in."

Cloud looked around and frowned, "I'll go get something."

Tifa smiled, "You don't have to if you don't want to, you know."

"I know. I'll be right back," Cloud gave Tifa a kiss and trotted away to get a container.

Tifa sat down while Aeris began plucking small juicy berries from the bush. She rubbed the small bump just below her bellybutton and laughed. Why is it that as soon as a woman becomes pregnant her husband gets it in his head that she can't do anything?

"Mommy, can I eat thome?"

"Just as long as they haven't touched the ground," Tifa smiled at Aeris. The little girl was almost the spitting image of herself, though Tifa could see bits of Cloud in her chin and body structure, and in how easily her light brown hair tangled. For now, her long hair was tied into a braid down her back. Seeing Aeris like this reminded Tifa of Marlene when she was about that age. Tifa's mind wandered, thinking back to when her life had been much more unknown…

"Mommy! _Mom-my_!"

"Huh?"

"I thaid, 'Daddy'th back'!"

"Oh, sorry," Tifa leaned her head back and looked up at Cloud, "Hello, there."

Cloud smirked and waved a grocery bag, "Hi."

"Now we can get loth of blackberries!" Aeris clapped happily, taking the bag from her father.

"One for the bag. One for Aerith. Two for the bag. Two for Aerith," Aeris chanted, plucking only the best of the berries from the bush.

Cloud sat down next to Tifa, "You feeling alright?"

"Yes, Cloud," Tifa hummed, "I'm just as fine as I was two minutes ago."

"Sorry," Cloud shrugged, turning his hands up to the sky, "…Do you think it's a boy or a girl?"

"Boy."

"What makes you so sure?"

"Don't know. But he's a boy."

"Okay," Cloud put his arm around Tifa's shoulders and laced his fingers through hers. Their wedding rings glinted in the sun, "Aeris, save some for the bag."

"Okay," Aeris put her handful of berries into the bag and continued plucking.


	3. Zell, Squall, and The Ghost

My friend wrote this after I told her about my blackberry stories. I would have written it, but she knows the characters in VIII way better than I know them! Hope you enjoy!

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"Movin to the country… gonna eat me a lot of blackberries… movin to the country… gonna eat me a lot of blackberries… blackberries come from a can, they were put there by a man… in a factory downtown… if I had my little way, I'd eat blackberries every day! Nature's candy in my hand or can… or pie!"

Zell sang as he stuffed his cheeks full of berries, still singing and spewing indigo juice all over the floor of the cafeteria. Just as he swallowed and reached for his beloved hot dog (the lunch lady had set it aside just for him… he knew that it was a good idea to make friends with those old gals), his poser-tough-guy of a buddy strolled up with his blue-clad dame on his arm.

"That song is supposed to be about peaches, y'know," Squall mused.

"Aw, shut up!" Zell snapped as he took an angry bite of his frank, "Is it illegal to replace words in songs?"

Squall shrugged and glanced down at the blackberries. A flash of a half-smile appeared on his face. Rinoa looked up at him, concerned, knowing that something was stewing in that angsty mind of his.

"You do know that it's bad luck to eat pork with berries," he said.

"What?" Zell said through a full mouth.

"Zell, shut your mouth, that's gross," Rinoa scolded.

In defiance, Zell stuck out his tongue which was cloaked with clumpy bits of bun and processed pork. He added a mature, "Nyeeeeehhhh!" to finish up the gesture. Once Rinoa gave a satisfactory cringe and girlish squeal, he swallowed once more and looked up at Squall, slightly suspicious.

"And why can't I eat the berries with my hot dog?"

Squall suddenly gave a slightly terrified expression to add to his act, "That's the school ghost's favorite food. If you eat berries with hot dogs, he will be summoned and wreak havoc on whoever is eating his favorite food. He will not stop the chaos until he is fed," Squall explained.

"That's not true!" there was a slight stutter in Rinoa's voice, "Zell, don't listen to him."

"Oh, believe me," Squall warned, sounding a bit nervous, "The last person who ate hot dogs with blackberries… have you heard of Bobby Sherman?"

"No…" Zell said, also beginning to become afraid. His palms began sweating.

"Exactly," Squall whispered harshly.

"Squall…" Rinoa muttered. She rubbed his arm softly.

Squall turned, being his usual ominous self, "It's too late for him," he told Rinoa, "I've done all I could to warn him. Come on, my puppy-dog."

The two left, still arm in arm. They were such an awkward couple. Puppy-dog? Was that the best Squall could come up with? And when did they even become a thing? Squall only started liking her after she went into a coma. He hated her average-pretty guts before that. Zell didn't know who was out of whose league, but they were totally a weird duo. After his little head-rant, Zell continued stuffing hot dogs and berries in his mouth, only slightly fazed by Squall's (totally made-up) warning.

"You there!"

Zell just about jumped out of his seat when a ghastly form of a massive man appeared before him. The figure was slightly transparent. It was in fact a ghost!

"Gimme your hot dog! And dem blackberries, too!" the enormous, steroid-charged, black velvet, gun-armed man bellowed.

Zell dropped his frankfurter on his tray, not taking his wide blue eyes off of the machine gun that was pointed at his head. The black, white-haired, old ghoul tried to take the hot dog off of the plate, but wasn't able to lift it up at all because… well, he was a ghost. Ghosts can't eat hot dogs. Everyone knows that.

In a fit of fury, the monstrous man hollered profanities and shot at Zell, only to have the adolescent squeak and cower. The ghost bullet went straight through Zell's head. Although it moved through material objects without even leaving a mark, Zell could feel the cold chill of death in that bullet.

Poser-cowboy Irvine had nothing on this guy!

The man grunted angrily and left, seeing that he had no effect on the human world and he disappeared into the cafeteria.

Startled by the gunshot and curious to see what had happened, Zell's lifelong rival, Seifer, stepped inside the now silent cafeteria with his long gunblade drawn. He lowered it, seeing that Zell was sitting alone and (other than that ridiculous tattoo… he regretted getting that) his face was about as white as mayonnaise. The blonde shook violently, still not too sure about what he had seen.

Before walking out, annoyed that he had missed the action, Seifer looked at Zell with a sneer and grumbled, "Hmph, chicken-wuss."

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Yes, the ghost is supposed to be Barret Wallace. He just looks old because he died of old age however long ago. Yay jumbled timelines!


End file.
